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Opinion & Editorial
This section includes Opinion and editorial articles relating to Lebanon and the Middle East written by NALA and others.
April 17, 2011 09:37
Written by Philippe Nassif, Guest Contributor | 16 April 2011
The Arab Spring has now reached the authoritarian and notoriously repressive Syria, long thought immune to such large scale protests and riots that have now shaken the hold of Bashar al Assad’s Baathist regime.
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April 11, 2011 10:30
Council on Foreign Relations: Pressure Points Blog
Russia + Syria + Hizballah = Hamas
By Elliott Abrams
Monday, April 11, 2011
On April 6, Hamas terrorists fired a Russian Kornet laser-guided missile at a school bus in southern Israel. How did Hamas get such a missile?
It turns out that Russia does not license others to produce this missile; every single Kornet is manufactured in Russia at the KBP factory. The KBP web site helpfully touts all the wonderful qualities of this weapon.
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April 06, 2011 19:20
Fashionable
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is every bit as dangerous and thuggish as his autocratic counterparts across the Middle East, yet for some reason Washington continues to embrace him
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March 26, 2011 17:49
WASHINGTON POST OPED
Syria of a despot
By Elliott Abrams, Friday, March 25
While the monarchies of the Middle East have a fighting chance to reform
and survive, the region’s fake republics have been falling like dominoes —
and Syria is next.
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March 10, 2011 15:48
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Why Syria Is Unlikely to be Next . . . for Now
By Bassam Haddad
March 10, 2011
As millions of Arabs stir their respective countries with demonstrations and slogans of change and transition, certain Arab states have been generally spared, including some oil rich countries and Syria. Syria stands out as a powerful regional player without the benefit of economic prosperity and with a domestic political climate that leaves a lot to be desired. Some say it combines the heavy-handedness of the Tunisian regime, the economic woes of Egypt, the hereditary rule aspects of Morocco and Jordan, and a narrower leadership base than any other country across the Arab world. Why, then, is all relatively quiet on the Syrian front?
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March 09, 2011 16:37
Lebanon's revolution waylaid by the old sectarian demons
Michael Young
Last Updated: Mar 10, 2011
analysis
Michael Young
Last weekend, thousands of people gathered in Beirut to demand an end to Lebanon's sectarian system. The groups backing the campaign are poorly organised, their agendas diverge, but the greatest difficulty they face is more fundamental: most Lebanese, for better or worst, are used to functioning within a sectarian framework, and have always bestowed legitimacy on their sectarian leaders.
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February 24, 2011 13:35
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Prospects for a New Lebanese Government
By Majdoline Hatoum
February 23, 2011
Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati has a tough job ahead: forming a cabinet strong enough to endure the political storm expected to rise from the findings of the United Nations’ Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) on the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
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February 22, 2011 19:27
by Franklin Lamb
February 22, 2011
The Tahrir Square “Hurriya!” tremors spreading across the Middle East may or may not be impacting today’s events in the historically liberal American state of Wisconsin and other areas of America, yet most of us would agree that the Tunisian-Egyptian revolutions are being felt far and wide and appear to be dramatically gaining steam. Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps are no exception.
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February 03, 2011 20:31
Despite the media's recent focus on Egypt, events in Lebanon may well tell us more about the troubled prospects for Middle Eastern democracy. The fall of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri's government, replaced by a Hezbollah-dominated coalition, dramatically imperils Beirut's democratic Cedar Revolution.
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January 26, 2011 11:13
Foreign Policy
Troubled Engagement
The United States has an ambassador in Syria for the first time in nearly six years. Now what?
BY ANDREW J. TABLER | JANUARY 25, 2011
On Jan. 16, Amb. Robert Ford stepped off a plane in Damascus -- and right into a diplomatic crisis in Lebanon. The news that Hezbollah and its allies, which are supported by Syria and Iran, have secured the votes to elect a friendly Lebanese prime minister will no doubt be on the top of Ford's agenda as Washington struggles to rein in Hezbollah's growing influence.
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January 25, 2011 11:31
Council on Foreign Relations Blog: Pressure Points
The “Resistance” in Lebanon
Posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2011
by Elliott Abrams
The influence of the United States in the Middle East is declining while that of Iran is rising. That’s the meaning of events in Lebanon, where Hizballah has in essence thrown Prime Minister Saad Hariri from office and is about to choose his successor.
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January 24, 2011 22:13
Council on Foreign Relations
Lebanon Approaches Tipping Point
By Deborah Jerome, Deputy Editor
January 24, 2011
Lebanon's increasingly assertive Hezbollah faction has said it would nominate for prime minister a fifty-five-year-old billionaire businessman, Najib Mikati. The emergence of a Hezbollah government--backed by allies Iran and Syria--would almost certainly set Lebanon on a collision course with the United States and its allies about the fate of the UN tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of prime minister Rafik Hariri.
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January 19, 2011 13:25
It has been almost six years since a brutal bombing in Beirut killed Lebanon's Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others on Valentine's Day 2005. This week, the UN prosecutor overseeing the investigation finally submitted sealed indictments to the criminal court's pre-trial judge as to who was responsible for the bombing. UN investigators and foreign intelligence over the last several years, however, have consistently pointed to senior Syrian and Iranian officials' involvement. While the names of the indicted individuals are not expected to be known for eight weeks, the Obama administration has known for quite some time that senior Syrian and Iranian officials are to blame for the brutal killings.
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January 17, 2011 20:52
South Beirut -- Informed Congressional sources in Washington DC today are confirming that the White House has informed Congressional Committee Chairpersons and American allies that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) will indict Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Wali al Faqui (jurisconsult or Supreme Religious Leader) for issuing the order to assassinate Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
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January 13, 2011 22:45
By David Schenker and Matthew Levitt
PolicyWatch #1741
January 13, 2011
Yesterday, January 12, as Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri prepared to meet with President Obama in the Oval Office, the Hizballah-led opposition withdrew its support from the Beirut government, forcing its collapse.
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January 12, 2011 23:44
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amb-marc-ginsberg/firestorm-among-lebanons_b_808295.html
January 12, 2011 22:39
Council on Foreign Relations Blog: Pressure Points
Can Lebanon Escape?
By Elliott Abrams
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Newspapers today are reporting that Hizbollah-backed members of parliament have withdrawn from the Lebanese government, effectively bringing down the coalition led by Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
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December 30, 2010 21:36
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=226551
December 29, 2010 22:50
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President Obama's First Two Years in the Middle East
By David Schenker
al-Hayat
December 27, 2010 |
President Obama assumed office in 2009 with an ambitious Middle East policy agenda. Atop the list of his campaign pledges, then Senator Obama vowed to pursue Israeli-Palestinian peace and re-engage in diplomacy with Tehran and Damascus. Given these grand plans, perhaps not surprisingly the first two years of the Obama Administration Middle East policy have been distinguished more by frustration than accomplishment. This is particularly true in the Levant -- in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel -- the focus of much of the Administration's regional efforts.
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December 08, 2010 16:34
Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the incoming chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, isn't wasting any time in pressing for deep cuts to the State Department and U.S. foreign operations around the world.
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